Microsoft has reported the theft of a number of electronic devices from its Mountain View campus in San Francisco over the Christmas period, though rather embarrassingly the thief overlooked items such as the company’s Surface tablet, Xbox game console and Windows handsets in favor of five iPads.

The incident, reported in a recent edition of Palo Alto’s Daily Post, involved the theft of two iPad 2s, two iPad 3s and an iPad 4 worth a combined total of around $3000. Police Sgt. Sean Thompson told the local newspaper that the theft was reported last Wednesday although it appears the crime took place between December 19 and 26. No suspect has yet been identified.

You might wonder why a thief would go for Apple products when we can safely assume there was plenty of other tech on show, such as Microsoft’s new Surface tablet. Surely they entered the premises with the intention of filling their loot bag with all manner of Microsoft goods before being distracted by Apple’s offerings. It could simply have been that that the criminal felt they could get a decent price for the iPad on the black market – after all, the level of popularity which Apple’s tablet enjoys among consumers is not in question, whereas sales of the Surface tablet have reportedly been sluggish since its launch in October last year.

Either way, you can imagine Microsoft employees, upon discovering that some items had been stolen, almost wishing to find that some of its own products had been taken too, so that it wouldn’t have to face the humiliating final line in the Daily Post’s report: “No Microsoft products were reported stolen.”

Though some on the web have been questioning the veracity of the story (cutting below), an email to website The Tech Storm from the Daily Post reporter who covered the incident confirms that it did indeed happen.